Text Talk

DO U TEXT? FYI - u nd 2 spk d lingo or gt left behind Are abbreviated smart phone messages proof that we're linguistically doomed... or the future of the English language? A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE TEXTING ..AND IT'S A BIG BUSINESS Over the next 5 years, 8 trillion mobile network providers will earn an estimated text messages were sent in 2011* (that's over 15 million per minute!) $726 billion 95% of cell phone owners 18-29 years old send texts from SMS text messaging There's even a national championship! The 2012 U.S. National Texting Championship was won by 17-year-old Austin Wierschke. • 100,000 contestants competed in various challenges • The winner texted 149 words in 39 sec. - without any errors! TEXTING ISN'T TEXT TERMS EVEN 20 AREN'T THAT NEW YEARS OLD In December 1992, 22-year-old British engineer Neil Papworth sent this holiday message from his work computer to an OMG was first used in 1917 by British Navy Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher in this dispatch to Winston Churchill: Orbitel 901 handset: "I hear that a new order of "Happy Knighthood is on the tapis- O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)- Shower it on the Admiralty!" Christmas" OED: "It's legit!" Oxford English Dictionary > LOL (Laughing Out Loud) > OMG (Oh My God) > IMHO (In My Humble/ Honest Opinion) Though most text abbreviations evolved to allow for more semantic > FYI (For Your Information) content in each 160-character message, "textish" is now so widespread that in 2011, the Oxford English Dictionary > TMI (Too Much Information) added a slew of text terms to their > BFF (Best Friend Forever) hallowed pages, making them an official part of the English language. Who's helping this new language develop? Young adults. 95% 97% of 18- to 24-year-olds own a cell phone of them text on a daily basis sending an average of 109.5 text messages a day IS TEXTING RUINING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE? MAYBE NO MAYBE YES One study revealed that people who text aren't modifying the language as much as we think. They use: According to another study: People who text often are less likely to accept new words than people who read more traditional print media. • "you are" and “u r" equally • "please" and "thank you" 3x The theory is that traditional print media exposes people to variety and creativity in language that is not found in colloquial peer-to- as often as "pls" and "thx" "see you" 4X as often as "c u" peer text messaging. IS TEXTING HELPING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE? One study identified a few ways that texting can increase reading skills: It drives language brevity and speed It helps develop paralinguistic restitution: It promotes comfort with phonological approximations: Contractions that imitate the Stylistic adaptations that account for the loss of socioemotional features sound of the word Ex: Capitalization (YES) Multiple punctuation (what??!!!) Phonological: Related to the science of speech sounds, especially how sound changes in a language. HOW DOES TEXTING AFFECT GRAMMAR One study, which observed "Generation Txt" students (in 6th, 7th and 8th grade), noted that: as text-speak use increased ...scores on grammar assessment tests decreased Word adaptations (for example, "great" becomes "gr8") were found to be negatively related to grammar scores TEXTISMS: Do they give students a COMPETITIVE edge... or push teachers OVER the edge? One British study of students aged 8-12 identified a causal Michael Schut, an english literature teacher, documented how texting link between the use of text affected how students write. message abbreviations and high performance on standardized spelling tests He noticed more: • Dropped consonants Dropped vowels • Dropped punctuation At 10% of student essays submitted to Mr. Schut contained elements of "Textese" 24% 62% of K-12 schools have of K-12 schools have banned cell phones from school grounds banned cell phones from classrooms TEXTING IS AN IN-DEMAND EXPORT One tech-savvy ESL instructor is teaching people in China how people "really" speak English in America with her text slang- focused web series "OMG! Meiyu," which has: more than 7 million Youku.com (China's equivalent of YouTube) views on more than 200,000 followers on Weibo (China's Twitter-like microblogging site) OnlineSchools.com For every chapter of your education • based on 2011 year-end projections Created for Onlineschools.com © QuinStreet, Inc., 2012 Sources "OMG: Text messaging turns 19 this week.and this is the Brit we have to thank for our sore thumbs," Katie Silver, Daily Mail, December 2011 "Where did texting come from?", Alan Cox, British Science Association, ret. August 2012 "Winston Churchill Was the Recipient of the First OMG," Alexis Madrigal, the Atlantic, March 2011 "OED New Edition Adds Slang: TMI, OMG, LOL Among Terms Added to the Authoritative Oxford English Dictionary," Slate.com, March 2011 "LOL," Oxford English Dictionary, ret. August 2012 "New Pew research: Teenagers love texting not talking on the phone," Lesley Lanir, Digital Journal, March 2012 OMG! Is texting ruining our language?", Mike Hager, Canada.com, April 2012 "Texting affects ability to interpret words," Jennifer Myers, University of Calgary (ucalgary.ca), February 2012 "Texting, email and spellcheckers might be causing our language to shrink," Bryan Nelson, Mother Nature Network, March 2012 "Americans and Text Messaging." Aaron Smith, Pew Internet & American Life Project (pewinternet.org), September 2011 "OMG! LOL: Internet Slang Added to Oxford English Dictionary," Daniel lonescu, PC World (pcworld.com), March, 2011 "U.S. Text Messaging Champion Is $50,000 Richer", Michael Dolgos, Boomberg Businessweek, (businesweek.com), August 2012 "OMG! Meiyu' Introduces China to American Slang, Idioms and Jay-Z," PBS (pbs.org), February, 2012 "Generation Txt? The sociolinguistics of young people's text-messaging," Crispin Thurlow, Discourse Analysis Online, 1(1). Accessed December 12, 2011. "A longitudinal study of children's text messaging and literacy development" Clare Wood et al, British Journal of Psychology, Jan 2011 "Texting, techspeak, and tweens: The relationship between text messaging and English grammar skills" Drew P. Cingel et al, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA, nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/05/10/1461444812442927.abstract